Chicago prof alleges discrimination, retaliation

(JTA) — A Jewish professor at a Chicago college says a bias complaint she filed at the school has led to retaliation.

Zafra Lerman, a tenured professor at Columbia College, says her conflict with the school is threatening a conference she is organizing that will bring together Middle East scholars, the Chicago Sun Times reported Monday.

The university is withholding funds raised for the Malta Conference, scheduled to be held next month in Jordan, Lerman’s attorney told the newspaper.

Lerman, an Israel native with Israeli and U.S. citizenship, alleged that the college treated her differently "as a result of her religion and ethnicity," attorney Laurel Bellows told the Sun Times.

Lerman reportedly has since been locked out of her office.

The accusations come less than a month after a Palestinian Muslim instructor fired from the college sued for discrimination in federal court after she was fired in January when a student accused her of making anti-Semitic remarks in class.

Columbia, an arts and media college on the South Loop, has 12,500 students.